ied; but
if the Government does not demand it, then we repeat that to favour and
not to curb the movement is the worst kind of Defeatism, for it creates
among Italians a state of mind tending to transform the sense of a great
victory into the sense of a great defeat ... quite apart from the
intransigeance which this provokes in the Yugoslav camp." It was in
vain. And when Bissolati, having resigned from office on the issue of
Italo-Yugoslav relations, attempted to explain his attitude at the Scala
in Milan on January 11, his meeting was wrecked, for though the body of
the hall and the galleries were relatively quiet, if not very
sympathetic--it was a ticket meeting--the large number of subscription
boxes, which could not be closed to their ordinary tenants, had been
packed by Bissolati's adversaries, who succeeded in preventing him from
speaking. After a long delay he managed to read the opening passage, but
when he came to the first "renunciation"--the Brenner for the
Teutons--disturbance set in finally and he left the theatre. Afterwards
the rioters adjourned to the _Corriere_ and _Secolo_ offices, where they
broke the windows. And thus the first full statement of the war aims of
any Italian statesman could not be uttered. It was spread abroad by the
Press. Bissolati claimed to speak in the name of a multitude which had
hitherto been silent.... The masses, he said, demanded, that their
rulers should devote all their strength to "the divine blessing of
freeing mankind from the slavery of war." ... "To those," he said, "who
speak of the Society of Nations as an 'ideology' or 'Utopia' which has
no hold over our people, we would reply: Have you been in the trenches
among the soldiers waiting for the attack?" [Signor Bissolati had the
unique record, among Allied or enemy statesmen, of having volunteered
for active service, though past the fighting age, and of having served
in the trenches for many months before entering the Orlando Cabinet.]

A FOUNTAIN IN THE SAND

The speech was an admirable expression of that new spirit which the
Allies had been fighting for. "Each of the anti-German nations," he
said, "must guard itself against any unconsciously German element in its
soul, if only in order to have the right to combat any trace in others
of the imperialism which had poisoned the outlook of the German people."
With regard to the Adriatic: "Yugoslavia exists, and no one can undo
this. But to the credit of Italy be it s